While You Were Offline: New Year, New ... You Gotta Be Kidding Me

Share

While You Were Offline: New Year, New ... You Gotta Be Kidding Me

Last week, the internet had very strong reactions to the GOP tax plan.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/Getty Images

Even though the year is grinding to a close—this is the last While You Were Offline column of 2017!—nothing is slowing down on the internet, where former Pentagon officials are talking about possible alien life, Bitcoin is apparently collapsing, and some reallyimpressivelybad reviews are circulating for Netflix’s big holiday release. Talk about going out with a bang and a whimper. But what else has been happening on this web we once called world and wide? Feast your eyes below, dear friends, and enjoy your holiday season. Let’s all meet up again in the year 2018.

Taxing Plans

What Happened: The Republican tax plan finally passes, on the third attempt, amid multiple examples of proof that this wasn’t the most considered attempt to reshape the American economy in history.

Sure, this is a bill that is fairlybad for the majority of Americans (no, really), but it’s not as if there’s going to be something that happened immediately as it was passed that acted as a visual metaphor for how things were going to go, right?

President Trump's UN-Deniable Misstep

What Happened: Despite a not-so-veiled threat from the US administration, the United Nations expressed its displeasure with President Trump’s attempts to destabilize the Middle East peace process.

What Really Happened: Hey, remember when Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, ending decades of US foreign policy? Sureyoudo. In what can only be described as "nothing even remotely resembling a surprise," it turns out that the rest of the world wasn’t happy with the decision, as became clear at the United Nations this week.

So, About That Meryl Streep Street Art...

What Happened: Anyone who bet on "street art in Los Angeles obliquely referencing Harvey Weinstein" as the latest front in the ongoing culture wars, you should probably consider playing the lottery.

What Really Happened: The fallout of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein continued in an unexpected direction last week when Rose McGowan went after Meryl Streep on Twitter. In a now-deleted series of tweets, she wrote, “Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @goldenglobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. You’ll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real change. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.” (McGowan later apologized for that last line, saying, “There is no map for this road I’m on, I will fuck up.”) Streep then responded via a statement from her publicist, denying that she knew about Weinstein’s activity:

And with good reason: The posters turned out to be the work of a right-wing guerrilla artist who wanted to protest the release of Streep’s upcoming movie The Post, about the Washington Post's decision to publish reports on the Pentagon Papers, and Streep’s political criticism of President Trump. “She’s swiping at us so we’re swiping back,” the artist—who goes by the name of Sabo—told The Guardian. The declaration of intent didn’t go too well.

Hannity's Blunder

What Happened: Fox News' Sean Hannity took to Twitter to complain about the media without checking his sources.

What Really Happened: In this age of #FakeNews, it’s up to truth warriors like Fox News’ Sean Hannity to tell America what’s really going on, with the help of their trusted outlets. Isn’t that right, Sean?

Pumpin’ Up the Volume, Breakin’ Down to the Beat

What Happened: It’s almost New Year's Day! But what’s the best way to start 2018? Twitter has more than a few suggestions.

What Really Happened: It’s almost 2018, which means it’s time for that all important question: How are you going to get your next year started? Last week, social media was there to answer that question, by ensuring that no matter what else is to come, your new year will start with an amazing soundtrack. To wit…